The Knight´s Legacy

Antarctica

NEUSCHWABENLAND

QUEEN MAUD LAND

ANTARCTICA

72 ° 10'S - 23 ° 18' E

1938 AUSTRAL SUMMER

After a tiring nonstop journey through the Antarctic continent they had finally reached their goal. On the wide gate of the shelter that served as dwelling to the men of the base there was a sign with the legend “Willkommen”  and it below “Base 196”.

The head of the base came out to welcome them warmly; by his attitude Horstmann deduced that they received very few visits on that site so remote as secret.

“I am Hauptmann Dieter Brandt, head of the station. We were concerned about your delay since the barometric pressure is rapidly falling and we fear a storm.” He then gave certain orders to his men and the travelers came along with your baggage into shed when at the distance a rumbling was heard and the ground shook slightly.

“Are those thunders or an earthquake?” Asked Horstmann.

“No, that's Dynamite. These were the last detonations of the day. I understand your curiosity, but we will take you to see the excavations once the storm has passed and when you have rested.” Said Brandt. “ Let´s now deal with your baggage and equipment.”

After downloading the material they were carrying inside the warehouse and keeping the mechanical sleds up to its refueling to return the next day, the men entered in the shed. Also joined six other members of the station who had been fulfilling tasks outside and now were searching for protection from the coming storm.

While they sipped a cup of coffee, a kind of luxury in that site, Brandt put Horstmann abreast on the activities that they developed in that site while the two other men who arrived at the base, a cartographer and an expert in explosives also listened. The head of the base seemed Horstmann as a jovial man, a trait essential to overcome the isolation of the place.

“There is a complicated system of caverns of a length unknown but undoubtedly  considerable and one of its entries is a kilometer away from here, in a place of difficult access. It would have never been found were it not for a small Dornier that in an  emergency landed a short distance from the mouth of the cave. From the air it is completely invisible, and in reality you can be walking less than fifty meters away from it  and still not see it. The purpose of your stay here it is completing a reconnaissance of this cave system and map it.

“What is the goal of this big effort?” Asked the cartographer.

“I imagine that it will be building a shelter or command center for all activities of the Third Reich in this continent. But in reality I do not know with certainty. As a first step, we must build a big enough shed so that construction crews can work at the heart of the mountain all winter long under cover.

Meanwhile outside the shelter a blizzard had unleashed. Barometric pressure had fallen 35 millimeters of mercury in less than half an hour, temperature had quickly fallen to 32 degrees Celsius below zero and a wild wind had developed in the vast plains of Antarctica without encountering obstacles that moderated it. Snow did not fell to the ground but was dragged horizontally by the wind and struck above all what was lodged in its path like a whip. The visibility was reduced first to a few meters and then to centimeters so that if someone was exposed to the weather he would not see his own hands. For this reason all personnel of Base 196 had rushed to return to it, since it was virtually impossible to orientate - even in areas well known- in the midst of the so-called whiteout. Under these conditions people go astray, turning in circles what ensues hypothermia and they die.

The shed in which they were was whipped by winds of more than 120 kilometers per hour, and the few existing  narrow windows were soon completely covered externally by the snow. External conditions were transmitted by the incessant hooting wind to the ears, and vibrations from the shed to the body. Despite the fact that through some heating burners fire was permanently cared for and fed, the temperature inside the shed fell sharply and men were crowding in contact with each other mutually providing animal heat not to freeze.

The blizzard lasted four hours, during which all men  were wrapped in blankets in the little chairs and drowsy. At the end of the atmospheric phenomenon, Brandt ordered his men, about 20 in total, going out to inspect the damage caused by the storm. They returned with the news that indeed some pillars built at the entrance of the cave had been damaged and had to be repaired.

They had begun exploring the caves two days earlier. The system was intricately, composed by numerous spacious caves of which they had explored the closest sectors for about six hours every day. Weiland, the cartographer, took measurements and made sketches in order to draw approximate maps  of the system. They were increasingly amazed by the breadth of the galleries, by the beauty of the complex of stalactites and stalagmites that surrounded them, and the relatively temperate environment inside the caverns. Horstmann was somewhat surprised at the good quality of air breathing, which reinforced their suspicions that there were natural ventilation channels throughout the galleries. The path climbed twice and the two men appeared on the iced surface through cave openings still less visible that the one they had used to enter. Horstmann realized that the entire underground system was of very unlikely location by land or air travels. It was clear that the Third Reich was not only performing anthropological tasks in the frozen continent, but also preparing for the permanence of human permanent bases, even though such preparations were based on hidden beliefs about the interior of the Earth.

After a frugal meal the explorers continued their march through a gallery that was manifestly narrowing to the point that should walk one after the other and in a crouching position. After half an hour of march, the gallery had been reduced to a narrow tunnel in which they only could continue crawling. Horstmann and his companion, a Navy non-commissioned officer chosen for being thin and  flexible, slid down the long corridor that would have produced claustrophobia to the majority of men. The gear they were carrying had been reduced practically to the garments they wore and headlights. In a moment they had to surround a meander of the tunnel, so small that only scratching their hands and faces and twisting the limbs to dodge the obstacles they could pass. Horstmann -who was leading the march- wondered at that point about the wisdom of continuing that way, but a stream of fresh air motivated him to continue. At a time, having slid part of the trunk through the narrow hole he became aware that his body was completely stuck. After a fleeting anguish access Horstmann breathed deeply looking to pull him together, and when he tried  again going on found that he was completely immobilized. Despite his experience in narrow tunnels on caverns despair invaded him momentarily. The Petty Officer accompanying him, taking charge of the situation, managed to laboriously pull his legs back. Finally, dislocating the bones of his body to adopt the lowest possible volume, Horstmann could get out of the situation slipping backwards. He was in that position a few minutes, resetting his breathing. He thanked the colleague who had helped him in such distressing situation, and decided to try to expand the gap so that it would allow them to pass. They were working on it about an hour, thinking at each second that the wisest thing to do was to abandon the effort. Basalt opposed a fierce resistance to their bench and mounting tool and peak, but finally a pretty big slab relented, letting them to pass through. Once on the other side, they stopped gasping for restoring forces and adapt the sight to the deep darkness; lanterns were throwing a faint light at the site, enough as to form a global image of the tunnel in which they were. On that side the tunnel expanded suddenly and looking at the new enclosure, the men had to hold their breath. The cavern had surprising dimensions, in such a way that the light of lanterns got lost in the dark without finding the opposite walls. To their feet and about ten meters away, a huge lake of dark waters stretched as far as the light of their lanterns illuminated. Approaching the lake Horstmann knelt on the rocky shore and stretched out his hand until it  reached the water. He then picked up a little in the palm of his hand and carried it to his mouth.

“Fresh water.” He said succinctly, taking charge of the importance of his discovery. A reservoir of usable liquid water for consumption, of unknown dimensions but undoubtedly large in the middle of a natural shelter from the  extreme weather conditions in Antarctica at the heart of this continent.

“OOOOh!” Shouted Horstmann pointing his mouth towards the tunnels on the other side of the lake. His voice reverberated for a long period and with side echoes that moved away from them

“ The cave continues indefinitely, and has many branches.” Deduced the Colonel. “It will take us much time to explore it all.”

On successive days, Horstmann and his small team made other findings, including long tunnels that put in contact among them natural rooms offering wide possibilities of housing people, equipment and supplies in large quantities, and included  deeper and more temperate natural zones, and other internal freshwater lakes. All of this was the product of unknown currents of water that had excavated and deepened those tunnels in past eras. Rocks with soluble or softer components had been eroded, and just the basalt had resisted. There was no doubt that the real reason for the expedition above the alleged anthropological investigations was the discovery of these natural sites and its survey. Germany would have a privileged knowledge whose future use Horstmann could only guess.

In order to accurately recording every detail of the caverns with approximate illustrative drawings, Horstmann began to record their findings in a journal that he had carried to that end. His habits as amateur speleologist, military training and his thorough personality  facilitated this detailed record. However, he knew he was not in an expedition of sporting or scientific type but in a top secret military mission, so he decided to keep for itself the fact of keeping a journal. Time would show how wise and pregnant of consequences this precaution was.

The blasts took place every thirty minutes opening the way for the tunneling machine. The ground resounded beneath the feet of Horstmann, opening cracks in the surface of the ice. He was surprised by the extent of the works and the fact that the ships continued bringing heavy equipment despite the lateness of the season. The short Antarctic summer practically neared its end, the cold was every day more intense and days shortened quickly. It was clear that the commitment of policymakers of the polar adventure was to make a great effort in the summer to be able to continue working in the winter, something considered impossible until then in Antarctica with temperatures of 50 degrees centigrade below zero or even lower, and frequent snowstorms. Working under the ground promised more acceptable living conditions, which would be put to test in the next few days. Horstmann wondered increasingly perplexed until when would such efforts continue since the scarce news coming from Germany showed clearly that it had already entered in a pre-war status.